Red Sox
COMMENT
The penultimate baseball Sunday of 2024 was quite a baseball Sunday.
In Los Angeles, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts cracked consecutive home runs to go away the Rockies. The Dodgers are within the place they at all times appear to be – on the cusp of one other National League West title, with a pitching staff that doesn’t seem healthy enough to win what really matters.
The Tigers won again by starting six pitchers and tied the Royals for the second wild card within the American League. (Detroit is 29-14 for the reason that morning of August 5, putting it 11 games ahead of the Red Sox despite scoring exactly another run than Boston.) The Mariners couldn't sustain, blowing a five-run lead against Texas.
The Padres handed the White Sox their a hundred and twentieth loss, matching the worst losing streak in your and your grandparents' lifetime, the 1962 Mets. The Yankees won in Oakland, falling only one win wanting reclaiming the AL East.
Paul Skenes brought his ERA back below 2.00 for the Pirates in Cincinnati, which was partly helped by the primary MLB home run for Quinn Priest traded Nick Yorke. (He made his debut for the Pirates last Monday.)
Also noteworthy: This defeat was the tip for David Bell of the Reds, who fired on Sunday evening a full 14 months after the franchise gave him a three-year contract extension. That extension got here amid hopes of a dynamic line-up of young players within the hunt for a spot within the postseason.
That October surge fizzled out. There wasn't one this yr; injuries and the vagaries of young players developing into major leaguers saw to that. (As did among the game's consistently worst defenses.) Some franchises persist with the method. Some fire their Chaim Bloom. Some fire their manager.
You know, there are not any analogies to Boston. I'm sure the hope here is different.
This obviously had a big effect on the playoffs on Sunday. At least for the Twins, although the Red Sox could not less than play the role of spoiler. A doubleheader sweep, 8-1 and 9-3ousted Minnesota for the primary time since their Sausage days Beginning of May.
Triston Casas, who hit three home runs in his first 32 games since his final return from his rib injury, scored three in Game 1. (“Not even in a video game,” Casas told reporters when asked if he had ever done that before.) Romy Gonzalez, an exceptional pinch hitter this season who was in an 11-1 loss earlier within the day, hit a three-run homer in Game 2 to spark a nine-run rally.
On the primary day of fall, the old ballpark rocked to Mr. Brightside, just because it had done for many of the summer. Those in attendance were glad to be there. The home team won a crucial game.
Even if it was a crucial game for another person. Even in the event that they lost greater than they won there for the second yr in a row, the primary time that has happened in two consecutive seasons since 1965/66.
“We will continue playing,” coach Alex Cora told reporters on Sunday evening. “We will keep playing until the end.”
A spotlight, as Cora had some deep personal reflection which gave each himself and his team a transparent advantage.
Another win can be No. 79, a step up from the last two discouraging years. (The Blue Jays, 6-12 this month, appear to have not less than a last-place contract signed for 2024.) Three more wins would mean a .500 season and possibly a third-place finish ahead of the Rays.
Actually, it was just window dressing. Before Casas made the memory of what might have been within the Red Sox lineup louder, told MassLive that “I never felt like myself this year.”
Devers won't must undergo shoulder surgery this winter, and the remaining appears to be enough to get one in every of Boston's key offensive players back into shape. It can be a start, but only that.
“There is a brand [of play] that we are looking for. We will make sure that we play like that,” said Cora said The Athletic in March“I think these guys are talented. They are. Now we have to go out and prove it, and I think they will.”
This team has something. They've proven it. Tanner Houck was an All-Star and hit the 170-inning mark. Kutter Crawford has nearly 180 innings and commenced 32 times. Jarren Duran. Wilyer Abreu and so forth.
They also proved that they need something more to get out of the quagmire of comparable teams — just a few good breaks in competition, just a few bad breaks in failure — and that they'll once more be the type of guys preparing for baseball after the upcoming Finals Sunday.
The season ends here. Hope is best than among the alternatives presented in the sport at the tip of one other yr.
But this isn’t a promise and it’s high time to construct on this hope.
image credit : www.boston.com